Awards

Darren Helm Awards

Stanley Cup

Bio

Darren Helm Bio

Imagine being considered a clutch playoff performer even before you're widely thought of as an everyday NHL player.

Through his first two seasons in the Detroit Red Wings organization, Helm had no goals in 23 regular-season games but six goals in 41 postseason games.

Imagine being considered a clutch playoff performer even before you're widely thought of as an everyday NHL player.

Through his first two seasons in the Detroit Red Wings organization, Helm had no goals in 23 regular-season games but six goals in 41 postseason games.

Helm was selected by the Red Wings in the fifth round (No. 132) of the 2005 NHL Draft. After spending the bulk of 2007-2008, his first pro season, with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League, Helm was a late-season call-up and played seven games.

But when playoff time rolled around, Helm, deployed as a fourth-line center, scored his first two NHL goals to help Detroit win its 11th Stanley Cup title.

Helm found himself back in the AHL to open 2008-2009 but would again draw notice in the postseason. Having failed to score a goal in 16 regular-season games, Helm scored four goals in 23 postseason games, including the goal in overtime of Game 5 that clinched the Western Conference Final on May 27, 2009, against the Chicago Blackhawks at Joe Louis Arena.

Detroit lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins, but Helm's reputation in big moments had been established. Improbably, at age 22, Helm had scored six goals in 41 postseason games and won the Stanley Cup before he'd ever scored a regular-season NHL goal. And he was still eligible for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the League's top rookie.

Helm scored his first regular-season NHL goal in his sixth game of the 2009-10 season, a 6-5 shootout loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 29, 2009.

Born in St. Andrews, Manitoba, Helm spent three years of junior hockey with Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League. In 2005-06, Helm scored 41 goals and 79 points, and scored 25 goals and 64 points the following season when Medicine Hat reached the 2007 Memorial Cup final before losing to Vancouver.